Tarini Malik

In order to understand notions of the human skin (in particular, on that of the female body) and its relationship to and subversion of traditional cinematic and institutional apparatus: the screen, this dissertation forms a critical assessment of the early performative actions of Austrian filmmaker, multi-media and performance artist VALIE EXPORT. EXPORT, who defines herself as a Expanded Cinema artist, has produced work (and is still producing work), which is concerned with identity, conscience and communication central to feminist discourse that developed in the 1960s and '70s in Western Europe. This dissertation focuses in particular on a number of cinematic artworks, the early guerrilla performances conceived by EXPORT from the late '60s and onwards, both with and without film, but cinematic nevertheless, which intended to overcome the dichotomy of object and depiction, production and reproduction, presence and representation. It will seek to explore how EXPORT’s commitment toward a redefinition of art practices and material investigations could consequently alter the way in which an audience perceives and views film’s traditional linguistic character and the otherwise traditional mechanisms of identification that embody the female figure.